| Three from Creek: Creek CD50 MK2
CD Player, Creek A50iR Integrated
Amplifier and Creek OBH 15 Phono
Preamplifier |
|
Three New Affordable Products that get the
Music Right |
|
Paul Szabady
|
May 2004
A very disquieting fact emerged during my 25 years in
the US audio trade: most passionate music lovers
simply cannot afford what have become known as High
End products. The situation has gotten steadily worse
since the 1980’s, when the concept of the High End
became established. Unfortunately, the term no longer
reliably refers to the highest of performance, but
simply to the highest of price. Is there any reason to
assume that those who can easily afford High End gear
– say lawyers, surgeons, stock market bandits, CEO’s
and drug dealers – have any kind of musical
sensitivity that would lead to appreciation of
ultra-fidelity, ultra-expensive components?
Even more unfortunately, most non-audiophiles
(particularly women) understand High End sound as
loud, piercing and obnoxious and that it will make
their LPs and CD’s sound worse. This attitude is the
complete reverse of the customer mindset when I began
working in audio in 1972; everyone then wanted their
music to sound better and was willing to pursue high
performance products to do so. The current
monopolization of the market by Super Store chains has
dumbed-down available products to the point where
illusory discounts and jive rule, and music is
altogether absent. What’s a music lover to do?
The UK has, by contrast, a firmly established
tradition of indigenous companies offering extremely
musical products at prices that any willing music
lover can afford. So strong is that tradition that the
big sleazy multinational firms are forced to offer
UK-dedicated products that are actually designed
around producing music in order to have half a chance
in the UK market. One of the central forces in
establishing that music-first tradition is Creek
Audio, eponymously named and still run by Mike Creek.
The company has a strong reputation of offering
musically moving products at real-world prices. Creek
now also owns Epos loudspeakers, with which it has
long been partnered. My experience with them dates
back four product generations; the 3 new Creek
products reviewed here strike me as the company’s best
yet. Music lovers can rejoice.
 The
A50i integrated amplifier continues Creek’s tradition
of exemplary musical performance at non-insane prices.
Integrated amps have always been the nucleus of UK
audio systems and there are numerous reasons for their
dominance. One is simple value, coupled with a high
Non-Screw-Up-ability Factor. One saves the price and
hassle of choosing an interconnect, and also the
possibility of mismatching the preamp to the power amp
when using items from different manufacturers. The
only trade-off is the need to use longer speaker
cables in some installations.
The preamp section of the A50i is passive, higher gain
in the 60 watt per channel amplifier making up the
difference. Like many of the best UK integrated amps,
design is modular. The A50i offers 4 line level inputs
(one of which can be configured for phono
preamplification) plus a tape monitor. Modules for
moving magnet phono and moving coiling phono cost $80
and $100 respectively; Special Edition (SE) versions
of these two modules are a $50 premium each. An active
preamp gain stage can be added for $80. The A50iR adds
remote control for an additional $200. My review
sample was the A50iR without any of the internal phono
modules installed in my review sample, as I was also
reviewing the Creek OBH15 outboard phono preamp.
Appearance and features of all 3 products is austere
and low-key in the traditional UK way. Also following
that purist tradition is the A50i’s lack of tone
controls, a balance knob, or a mono switch.
 The OBH 15 includes
the OBH 2 outboard power supply and allows for both
moving magnet and moving coil playback. Analogue
enthusiasts can run both types of cartridges
simultaneously as there are two set of phono inputs: a
push button on the rear switches operation. (Make sure
you turn the volume off when making the switch.) Phono
performance of the OBH 15 is roughly equivalent to the
SE phono modules, altered slightly by the dedicated
power supply.
I ran 6 turntables (thus my not including one of Music
Hall’s turntables in this review) with 8 different
cartridges and 5 sets of loudspeakers with this
combination. Common to all was a sonically seamless
and musically coherent performance that immediately
shifted attention to the quality of the music being
performed rather than on the components doing the
reproduction. Tonal quality was equally coherent, with
no part of the frequency spectrum being spotlighted or
slighted. Bandwidth was wide with no sense of
frequency truncation at either frequency extreme.
Drive, dynamic contrast/shading, rhythm, and phrasing
were top drawer, leading to deep musical involvement
with all types of music: no need to restrict one’s
listening to the amplification’s limitations. The
polyrhythmic boogie of Little Feat was handled as
adroitly as Schubert’s Quintet in C; Mozart danced as
well as James Brown; solo instruments shone as clearly
as full orchestras. While Creek’s generational
predecessors to the A50iR struck me as slightly bright
(4040/4140 series) or a bit too polite (4330), the
A50iR hit the Goldilockian ideal of being “Just
right.”
Resolution is very high, leading to convincing sonic
portraits in believable acoustic landscapes. The amp
continues the Creek tradition of being able to drive
varying and difficult speaker loads with aplomb. The
speakers I used included 4-ohm loads (Infinity Qb),
the capacitive load of electrostatics (Sound Lab
Dynastats), the reticent and low sensitivity Spendor
2040, and various revealing tweeters that can
spotlight amplifier flaws. A natural match was the
Epos M15.2; not very surprising really, considering
that Creek owns Epos and that US importer Music Hall
distributes both. The A50iR was unruffled by any of
these combinations, maintaining its drive and
confidence while still delivering the music.
The OBH 15 phono preamp was of the same sonic and
musical fabric as the A50iR and, as a $450 outboard
phono section that offers both MM and MC inputs and
permits running two turntables, is a supreme bargain.
Both inputs were excellent musically and sonically; my
only purist quibble being to make sure that one’s MC
cartridge works optimally into the OBH 15’s MC
cartridge load of 1000 ohms, as it is not adjustable.
 The
CD50 Mk2 CD player was as much an over-achiever as the
amp and phono section: so much so that I gave it my
Most Wanted Component of 2004 award. Other than CD’s
historical inability to reproduce the tonality of
acoustic instruments identifiably, its homogenization
of subtle dynamic shifts, its turgid and a-rhythmic
way with pulse, tempo, phrasing and rhythm, its
a-musical somnolence and anti-musical artificiality,
its eyeball-warping print size, and its “1984”-ish
insistence that a 2-cent plastic case is in fact a
‘jewel box,’ I’ve been a big fan of the Perfect Sound
Forever format. Things change. The CD50 Mk 2 is the
first reasonably priced CD player that I actually want
to own. More importantly it’s the first reasonably
priced CD player I actually want to listen to music
on. It produces music in the way that previously was
the sole provenance of LP. I had despaired of CD ever
being this musically convincing and exciting.
Convincing it is, both musically and sonically. The CD
50 Mk2 tracks volume changes unusually well, leading
to fine articulation of dynamic contrast within a
music line or rhythm. Beginnings and ends of notes
were very well done, ending a long-standing CD flaw.
Musical devices are well portrayed, leading to superb
dynamic articulation, phrasing, and tension and
release. Rhythm and drive are particularly strong, an
area where CD has never convinced me before. To be
applauded is the CD50 Mk 2’s refusal to dumb-down the
signal to render it listenable; this is a genuinely
high-resolution CD player, a phrase I’d long believed
an oxymoron. Whether it achieves this through
successful incorporation of new chip technology,
intelligent power supply design, or by bolting a fairy
to the player’s innards to spread enchanting fairy
dust on the signal is immaterial to me. It works. It
makes music, exciting music.
Experimenting with various state-of-the-art isolation
devices under the three Creek products yielded no
major musical improvement, leading to the conclusion
that Creek’s designs are well thought out on the
mechanical and vibratory level also
Three thumbs-up for these three excellent new Creek
products. Although not chain store cheap, their high
musical performance makes them bargains, especially in
comparison to their many musically turgid High End
(i.e. high-priced) competitors. Any serious music
lover could buy these and never look back.
|
Specifications
CD50 Mk 2 Single-play CD player -
Price: $1495.
A50iR - 60 watt/channel integrated amplifier.
Price;
$995, ($795 without remote control).
OBH 15 - MM/MC Phono preamplifier with outboard OBH 2
power supply. Price: $450. |
 |
